Alberta Trees of Note. A must read.
 

Did you know some of Alberta's trees have quite the history? Like 300 to 1000 year old individual trees. And amazingly particular trees have importance historically.

Anyways I discovered this 30 year old book online and thought some other folks might find it interesting. It will give me a different appreciation for our trees and forests. And it gives me more landmarks to check out when travelling around the province. Now I know the story behind some of the individual trees I have seen in my travels. Enjoy...

http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/24292.pdf

Interesting. How are they aging the trees while they are still standing?

I think most ages would be determined with core samples.

Very cool read. Thanks, Red!

These trees all managed to escape the wild fires that regularly ravaged the country. The lucky ones.

Grizz

Very Interesting, Thanks, I see they have the Cypress Hills Survival tree listed,
Police Point Park in the Hat has a couple of Massive Plains Cotton woods well over 300 years old

Poplar
 

We’ve got a poplar tree on some property near the pembina river that has a circumference if I bet it’s 11-12’ around. I wonder how old that sucker is.

Last time and only time I did a Brewsters tour of the Icefields, I recall them commenting on the 700+ year old Douglas firs, which weren't very massive.

Very good read. Thanks for posting.

That’s a very interesting link Red. Thank you for sharing it.

BW

Reminds me of a few years ago....was on company camping trip near Pine Lake and boss noticed a bunch of random people wandering around near our tents. Since we booked the camp privately he asked me to go and tell them it was a private function.

After talking with them they said that they were arborists in search of a famous tree that was supposed to be in the area....the Ghost Pine or Blood Pine or something. Said that a tribe of natives were all lined up and killed at its base and that legend had it that the tree continued to grow dead. I went with them to search the little area and the tree that they decided must be the Blood Pine tree was actually there....looked like a big, old dead pine tree with a twisted trunk.

I must have went right white when they found the "Ghost Pine".....the evening before I snuck off for a quick 'puff' and went out to that little stand of trees and pretty much sat on the trunk of the tree while smoking.....then I had to pee so I went at the base of the tree.....then I ripped of a big section of it dried up bark from the bottom of the tree for kindling, and went off to start the fire for the group. I still feel bad to this day...even though at the time I just saw a dead tree...just like any other....now I'll have a tribe of ****ed off native ghosts after me for eternity

These 'famous' trees should be specially marked to avoid morons like me.

The Pinto Lake trees blew down a few years ago. They were picked up and are on display in the Rocky forestry office.

Since this thread is about alberta trees I thought I would share this website too. It is only for Edmonton public land but interesting that it inventories many of Edmonton's trees individually. Interesting that there are so many that are not native but grow good here. Even notes some berry bearing trees which could be picked.

https://www.opentreemap.org/edmonton...5238/-113.4872

Saw a couple like that at Sheep Creek in the Wilmore. Beavers had gone to work on them but gave up. :lol:

Grizz

I’ve got pics somewhere of a tree with about 13 to 15 foot circumference near the Pembina and have heard of others. I have a wingspan just north of 6 feet and I wrapped my arms around it and two wingspans plus
The pics were on my Samsung and I’ve switched to iPhone. Not sure how I’d go find it right now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had recently seen a post in a Facebook group noting of some 'heritage' trees within Calgary. I'm a big fan of white oak for use in Arts & Crafts style furniture & interior trim, etc so I was interested that the Bur Oak is a white oak variety that survives in Calgary's climate when I read about the variety years back. One such Bur Oak was noted to be blocks from my childhood home in Crescent Heights so I drove by the other day and snagged some acorns from it. I have them planted and am hopeful to see them sprout successfully. Just days earlier I was at a call where the clients younger Bur Oak had lots of acorns so I grabbed many of those; although many were damaged by some type of insect that left holes in them I did find a coup[le of dozen that seemed intact. I have a bunch of those planted but they'll receive second billing to the ones from the heritage tree that's survived since 1937. I can really only plant one on my property but I'll give away others and perhaps even perform drive-by plantings of some in areas I feel could use one. They grow slowly but they will outlive most species that we have growing locally.

Very cool. I also thought of the 'Heritage Trees' database when I saw the title